I think that a sniper would use the scope on his primary weapon to observe, as opposed to a binoculars. Makes reacting to situations quicker. But I think they also have spotters also to help them pick targets.

Anyway, taking the picture was in bad taste, and posting it to instagram was a sheer act of stupidity.

My take is "we were ******* around." "we were sighting in" "the target was approximately the same size". That soldier needs to lose his job for instagraming anything that come into his scope.

A sniper most likely is not going to be shooting kids, nor trying to take head-shots from that distance especially since his back is nicely exposed. The bullet will be any size ranging from golf ball to baseball at that distance the chance not to kill is very low no matter where in that sight picture he hit. It not worth the miss for the head-shot.

If I look at the photo from a graphic perspective ... if I were trying to illustrate an article on innocent Palestinians being unfairly targeted by Israel, this would be a perfect photo for that.

Some here are seeing the photo as a form of a violent wish on the part of the sniper, as in I'm targeting this boy because I want to shoot him. As I don't know the intentions of the photographer, it's impossible for me to know.

However, the message the photo conveys [intentionally or not] to me is not the personal desire to kill, but is instead about the injustice and violence being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people.

Is it possible that the sniper sympathizes—at least somewhat—with the plight of Palestinians and posted that picture intending to send that message? Either way, it was, as others suggest, a foolish thing to post.

I wonder if anyone has actually read the new stories? Paper, though making leaps of assumptions itself - says that the context of the photo can not be confirmed. The soldier says he found the photo on the internet, and merely reposted - this from the article that itself says "...aggressive message is clear." (Irish Times article). So, they can't actually say for sure that the soldier actually took the photo, but they will condemn him all the same. Yep....

If you want to know why there is no peace in the mid-east it's because people outside the mid-east continue to feed the conflict with their own hate. There is hate enough to go around on both sides in the conflict... why do we feed it from the outside as well?

I found this thread by accident, and I'm signing out... go ahead without me.

Well, it's interesting that the government of Gaza Strip still has as it's primary goal the destruction of Israel. How do you talk peace with a government that won't meet with you face to face? And that only wants you "driven into the sea?" Keep in mind that the current government in Gaza drove the moderate government out in a violent military coup when they started talking peace with Israel. Many many Gazans died at the hands of Palestinians during that coup.

There is blame enough to go around. Israel is not blameless, but neither can the by blamed for the situation. It suits the world for various reasons to have that conflict so we let it go on.

If you want to know why there is no peace in the mid-east it's because people outside the mid-east continue to feed the conflict with their own hate.

Click to expand...

No its because the Israeli government doesn't want peace.

We can argue about whether Hamas will agree to reasonable terms until the cows go home - and I suggest we don't discuss that further. Hamas certainly have a current ceasefire with Israel - which is the usual reasonable pre-condition for talks.

However the Israelis could stop building settlements (as the whole international community, including the US, says they should) and get everyone (including Hamas) round the table.

Then worst case you can agree peace with the Arabs and Fatah in the west bank - which would be a huge step forward - and make it clear that Hamas was the only sticking point.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.